She’s going into a coma, Thomas thinks. Eventually, she’ll die. After that, it’s only a matter of time before she opens her eyes again. He shivers violently despite the stifling heat.
“I think we should call out,” Dan says, licking the sweat from his upper lip. “If it is a zombie, we can’t get out that way anyway. It makes no difference whether it knows we’re here or not.”
Thomas takes a deep breath. “You’re right. We might as well try.”
“Call for him, Thomas!” Jennie exclaims suddenly. “Just call for him!”
They both look at the sweating, fevered girl on the floor. It’s almost like she has been following the conversation, but it’s obvious to Thomas that she’s merely delirious.
Dan starts sniveling.
Thomas reaches out and squeezes his shoulder. “We can still get her to the hospital. As soon as we get out of here, we run straight to the car, and …”
Dan looks up at him, tears in his eyes. “I know the rules, you know.”
Thomas can’t think of anything else to say.
Jennie twitches again.
“Are we just supposed to … leave her?” Dan asks, blinking as a fly lands on his cheek. “If we get out of here, I mean.”
“I think we might have to. For now, anyway. Once we get a hold of the police, they’ll have to come and get her.”
“You think there’s still police?”
“Why shouldn’t there be?”
Dan shrugs. “Because the world is probably ending.”
Thomas’s mouth glides open. The thought hasn’t even crossed his mind. What if Dan is right? What if this is the zombie apocalypse? Even if they make it out of here, they just might meet a world where everything is falling apart, where the zombies are rapidly taking over and where the remaining survivors are struggling to keep alive. His tongue suddenly feels way too big and sticky.
What about Dad? Or Mom? Or Christian? Or all the guys from work? Are they walking around as zombies right now?
“We’d better not think about that right now,” he manages to say, shoving aside the images. “First we need to focus on getting out of this fucking basement.”
“All right, but …” Dan glances at his sister. “What if we can’t get the hatch open?”
Thomas catches his drift. “Then we’ll have to tie her up.”
Dan looks ill just thinking about it, but he nods bravely.
Thomas goes to the ladder and looks up at the hatch. Then, he calls out: “Hello? Can you hear us up there?”
They listen.
Jennie mutters something.
Thomas can hear the steps coming across the floor. They stop right above the hatch. A few seconds of dead silence follow.
“We’re down here!” Thomas yells. “In the basement! Right below you!”
They listen again. Another second or two passes by in silence.
Then, there’s the sounds of two muffled bumps. Thomas imagines how the person drops down on his knees. He prays that whoever is up there will answer him within the next second or two, or at least begin to work the lock.
But it’s a completely different sound that comes from the hatch.
The sound of scraping nails.
Thomas feels his heart sink. He turns his head to look at Dan.
The hopeful expression on Dan’s face slowly crumbles. “Oh, no,” he breathes. “It’s another zombie …”
SIX
Dan looks around. “What do you think happened here?”
Thomas tries not to look at the gutted animals. “Something really fucked up.”
“It almost looks like a sacrifice,” Dan goes on.
Thomas shrugs. He has almost gotten used to the stench and the flies constantly landing on him by now. “Maybe she was a witch or something.”
Dan approaches the table. It has a wide range of jars and pots, stones, crystals and wooden figurines. There’s a row of bird skulls and an old, thick book. Dan opens it and leafs through the pages.
“What does it say?” Thomas asks.
“I don’t know—it’s not written in Danish.”
“Is it English?”
“No, it’s not a language I’ve ever seen. But it has some pretty sick illustrations.”
Thomas tries to say something, but starts coughing instead. “Christ, I could really use a glass of water right now. My throat is dry as sand.”
“Check this out,” Dan mutters, still leafing through the book. “I think she used this when she did the ritual.”
Thomas goes to see. Dan stops at a page with a single, large drawing which resembles the lineup in the room. A lot of incomprehensible words are written around the illustration.
“What do you think was the point of the ritual?” Dan asks.
“No idea. I didn’t go to Hogwarts.”
Dan doesn’t seem to hear the joke. He just starts turning pages again.
Thomas goes to check on Jennie. She’s fallen still, and it’s almost like she’s just sleeping normally. But as he crouches down to feel her cheek, he finds it glowing hot. Her arm is dark and swollen, the skin abnormally distended and shiny. The infection obviously already reached the fingers, which are thick like sausages.
A memory comes to him. That night they met at the disco. He recalls the tinkling sensation in his stomach when Jennie slid her fingers in between his. He feels a deep stab of pain and sympathy.
Don’t think about that now.
He straightens up and takes a deep breath. Suddenly, he just wants to get out of here. Right now. “We need to choose one of the ways, Dan,” he says firmly. “I vote for the hatch. If it’s only a kid up there, it’ll be easier for us to get past it. Plus, if we break open the hatch, it’ll probably fall through. If we’re lucky, it’ll break its legs.”
Dan nods. “You’re right. Let’s try.”
“Maybe we need to look for something to use as a weapon …”
“How about this?” Dan takes something from the table which Thomas didn’t notice till now. It’s a huge knife, the blade black with
